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Truth Be ToldHank Phillippi Ryan Forge, 2014. Truth Be Told is the third Jane Ryland novel by Hank Phillippi Ryan. Jane is an investigative journalist (as is the author) and in this newest release she is doing a story on foreclosed houses in Boston, when a dead body is discovered in the empty house she is watching. Meanwhile, her secret boyfriend is Detective Jake Brogan, who is suddenly faced with a confession about a 20 year old murder that may or may not be true. Add to the mix some bank fraud, a few more homicides in empty houses, and the fact that Jane and Jake not only have to keep their relationship a secret, but are unable to share with each other what their investigations are turning up, which might help solve all the murders, both new and old. All of this comes to a head when Jane is in line to become the next dead body in an empty house and things finally are made clear. This is a terrific mystery, with numerous threads running through, that keeps the reader intrigued until the very last page. On the Web:Author’s Website Interview with the AuthorPost by Eileen Jaffe, Pinal County Library District Cataloger

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Michael Robotham’s new novel Life or Death starts out with a prison break. Audie has been in prison for ten years and he breaks out the very day before he is due to be released! The story moves forward in real time, but interspersed within the flow is the back story that slowly explains why Audie was in prison in the first place, and why he broke out a day before his release. The questions that are asked by all at the beginning finally are answered as the novel progresses. Where is the seven million dollars that was stolen? Where is Audie’s brother, Carl? Is he living the high life on a beach in the tropics? Why are so many people trying to kill Audie, both in and out of jail? Who is this teenage boy that Audie seems interested in? This is a fascinating tale of corruption and false imprisonment, along with a heartbreaking love story. It is thrilling until the very last page.

On the Web:

A quick summary from the author:

*Bonus: If you are attempting the “2015 READING CHALLENGE” Life or Death fulfills the challenge to read ‘a book with antonyms in the title,’ among other possible categories.

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This historical novel is based on the story of the wives who accompanied their husbands to live at a science lab in New Mexico, but the women did not know that the men were building the world’s first atomic bomb. In the community of Los Alamos, there is secrecy and gossip, worry and pride. From 1943-1945, the women follow news of the war and gather clues from their men’s silence as they speculate together about what role their husbands may have in the war effort.

The author succeeds in her incredible performance of language. The entire book is written in first person plural, always using the pronoun “we” to collectively tell the story of all the wives living at the science base. For example, “We arrived newlyweds, or with a seven-year itch, or still great friends, or no longer in love but trying to keep it together for our children, or for ourselves” (page 18). They are all sharing the same experience of being wives, but they have very different, individual experiences of marriage. In just one concise sentence, the author conveys so much information that applies to the entire community of women. “We stepped off trains nine months pregnant, or carrying six-week-olds in clothes baskets, or holding the hands of our two-year-olds – our Bobbys and our Margarets” (page 14). A single sentence describes the overlapping experience of all the wives arriving with their children, yet succinctly presents the nuances of the different details within the individual woman’s experience.

Although the names of a few women are mentioned more than once, there are not any main characters. There is no protagonist. To be honest, this book does not really have a plot either. The Wives of Los Alamos is an exercise in language. The author carries the language beautifully all the way to the end and lends voice to the women’s shared experience at Los Alamos.

A Reading Group Guide with fifteen questions is included at the end of the book, making it a strong candidate for book groups.

*Bonus: If you are attempting the “2015 READING CHALLENGE” The Wives of Los Alamos fulfills the challenge to read ‘a book based on a true story,’ among other possible categories.

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May 10 – 16th, 2015 is Stuttering Awareness Week. This is a time developed by The Stuttering Foundation in which awareness can be raised about this speech disorder in order to not only encourage early detection and speech therapy treatment, but to also eradicate the stigma that surrounds the condition. Individuals who stutter often develop a fear of speaking in public, and the condition can affect their self-esteem.

The reality is that this condition doesn’t have to be a roadblock. Many stutters have learned to manage their symptoms or make peace with the disorder and become highly successful public speakers and public figures. See The Stuttering Foundation’s website and poster below to learn more.

“Famous People Who Stutter”, by The Stuttering Foundation. Click the image to see the poster full size.

In addition to the famous names above, some of your favorite authors have battled stuttering disorder.

Amanda Palmer may be known as the lead singer of the band Dresden Dolls, or for her marriage to award winning author Neil Gaiman, but Palmer shines as author in her own right in this autobiographical reflection on vulnerability, artistry, and trust.

Chronicling the success of her band’s 2012 Kickstarter campaign, The Art of Asking outlines the points made her 2013 TED Talk of the same name. Readers interested in the music industry, creativity, or those who simply have struggled with asking for help in their own lives will love this book.

The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World
by Lewis Hyde2007
“The Gift is a brilliantly orchestrated defense of the value of creativity and of its importance in a culture increasingly governed by money and overrun with commodities.” – Vintage Publishing

Cyndi Lauper: A Memoir
by Cyndi Lauper
2012
“Legendary and iconic singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper offers a poignant account of the journey that led her to become an international superstar—from her years growing up in Queens, New York, to becoming an actress, a mother, an outspoken activist, and maintaining a music career that has lasted more than thirty years.” – Atria Books

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An interesting reading challenge by PopSugar is making the rounds on social media, and the Pinal County Library District office is pretty excited about it! Some of the librarians are considering tackling the challenge as a New Year’s Resolution. Reading in and of itself is a good time, but finding books to match each of the challenge criteria is also a lot of fun. Some of the categories can feel like a puzzle waiting to be solved! Scroll down for some suggestions that may make finding the right book a little easier. As always, you can also contact your local librarian for book recommendations, or write us here.

If you’re interested in trying out the 2015 Reading Challenge, you can download a handy Word version here.How to find:

Fantastic Fiction’s homepage has links to Awards, Countries, Series and Years. Click on Countries, select a country, then click on any author. You may need to read the book’s summary to determine the setting.

“A Pulitzer Prize winning book” AND a “Play”

Visit the Pulitzer Prize website and knock out two categories at the same time. This may not be strictly “legal” but I won’t tell if you won’t. On the right side of the page you will see their “Letters, Drama, and Music” categories. Click on Drama to find a list of award winning plays.

“A Book more than 100 years old”

Project Gutenberg has thousands of free out-of-copyright books to choose from. Browse their catalog by category, or search by author or title. I recently discovered some mystery books written by Burton Egbert Stevenson that are quite good. Download these free books to your computer, tablet or smart phone, or create a list then borrow a copy from your local library.

“A Book with antonyms in the title”

This is an intriguing category but it’s not as easy as you might think to come up with a list of antonyms and then find books you might actually want to read. A good place to start is the Opposite Word website where you can browse or search for antonyms.

Create a list of antonyms, such as odd/even or before/after, then go to our catalog and do a keyword search using each pair of antonyms. Be sure to Search By Title to find your antonyms in the title of the book and not in the summary. If you’re not finding titles of interest in our catalog then you might want to try the same search at your favorite online bookstore.

“A Book that came out the year you were born”

To find the number one New York Times Best Sellers in fiction and non-fiction for the year you were born, go to Hawes Publications site.

If none of the number one titles appeal to you, the Hawes website also has a complete week-by-week list of fiction and non-fiction New York Times Best Sellers. To see these lists, type http://www.hawes.com followed by the year you were born in the address bar of your web browser (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc.) If you were born in 1990 go to http://www.hawes.com/1990/1990

Why would you want to read a book with a bad review? There are too many good books, and not enough time to read them, to waste time reading books with bad reviews. But after taking a look at BuzzFeed’s list of “11 Beloved Books with Shockingly Bad Reviews”, you may change your mind. You will be surprised at the reviews some of these well known books received at the time of publication.

This is a tricky category. What makes me cry might not affect you at all. And how do you know if a book will make you cry in advance? You could end up reading a lot of books before you find the one that makes you cry.

While it’s easy to find books written by authors that share your same first or last name, it’s not so easy to ones that with your same initials. A good resource for finding books in this category is Fantastic Fiction. There are two methods for finding authors with your initials:

1. Do an author search using your first name then scroll through the alphabetical list until you find authors whose last name starts with the same letter as yours.

2. Click on Top Authors, then click on the letter of your last name. Scroll through the results, looking for authors whose first name starts with the same letter as your own.

Want to stick to something classic? See if there’s any authors with you initials on the Classic Lit Authors A-to-Z About.com page.

“Banned Books”

The American Library Association compiles lists of challenged/banned books in order to inform the public of censorship efforts that affect libraries and schools. Visit ALA’s website for lists of books in this category but brace yourself, you may be surprised at some of the titles that have made the list.

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Now that the holidays are over, your thoughts may be turning towards that anticipated (and sometimes dreaded) New Year’s Resolution. Your local public library has a large selection of books and DVDs on diet and exercise but I wanted to highlight a few eBooks from our 3M Cloud Library collection: The Paleo Diet is more popular than ever. Here are some titles to inspire you:

Are you new to eBooks? Then visit our website for help with the 3M Cloud Library and all of Pinal County’s digital products. http://bit.ly/pcelibrary Good luck with whatever you decide to tackle in 2015! Post by Shirley, Outreach Librarian, Pinal County Library District

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November is National Novel Writing Month, otherwise known as NaNoWriMo.
Librarians are great advocates and participants of this challenge because it supports our goals of literacy, a love of creative fiction & reading, and it’s just plain fun!

Below you’ll find a compilation of NaNoWriMo resources, as well as a number of other helpful links to get you started on the path toward writing your novel.
Pinal County residents will find noteworthy the links to locally-oriented web forums, events, and meet-ups.

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Dear Daughter is the first novel by Elizabeth Little, and it definitely hits the mark. It opens with the release of Janie Jenkins on a technicality after ten years in prison for killing her mother. Did she do it? She really can’t remember, but what little she does remember from that night causes her to doubt her own guilt, and go on a search for the real murderer. Not that she got along with her mother, but … could she have killed her? Add to all of this the fact that she is a celebrity living in Beverly Hills, so when she gets out of prison, everyone is looking for her, some want to kill her, almost everyone still thinks she was guilty of her mother’s murder. So Janie sets off on her search, in disguise, and tells no one where she is going. She discovers her mother’s background and in the process makes many more discoveries about who her mother was, and who she is, herself. She is funny, and determined and a very resourceful character. The story has many twists and turns and by the end, there is one last surprise. This is an engrossing mystery that many will find hard to put down.

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If you’re like me, sometimes you like to re-read old favorites. Right now I’m re-reading the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters. These historical mystery novels are set in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Egypt and focus on the exploits of Amelia Peabody and her archaeologist husband Emerson. Elizabeth Peters was a pen name for archaeologist Barbara Mertz so not only will you be reading a witty and entertaining mystery but you will learn a lot about the monuments, people, and culture of Egypt. She also wrote a companion book to the series, “Amelia Peabody’s Egypt: A Compendium,” which is full of old photos, anecdotes, and additional information about the region.

It’s best to begin with first book in the series, “Crocodile on the Sandbank.” For the most part, the books were written and published in chronological order however two were out of sequence. Having read the series in both publication and chronological order, I can tell you that both reading orders work equally well and make little difference in the development of the storyline or characters. Barbara Mertz died on August 8, 2013 and, as far as I can determine, there will be no more books in this series. This quote, which was posted on her website after her death, is particularly meaningful after having read the series:

“In the end the clouds will blow away and the falcon will fly through the portal of the dawn.”
– The Falcon at the Portal

The Amelia Peabody series is available in a variety of formats including large print, audiobook and eBook. The “Crocodile on the Sandbank” audiobook is also available for download through OneClickDigital audio books.